COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND TEXT

1 MACRO APPROACH

The original text is obtained from a website www.careers.marksandspencer.com of the company Marks & Spencer, which specializes in selling high-quality products, primarily clothing, cosmetics and food. The author of this text is unknown. The article is aimed at people, who have an interest to apply for an internship offered by the company Marks & Spencer. The text is written in publicistic style.

As mentioned above, the text gives information about internships offered by Marks & Spencer. It introduces the company and its aims in the area of human resources. The text presents different ways, of giving the potential applicants the opportunities to have a thriving career in Marks & Spencer.

The function of this text is to inform and persuade potential applicants about the internship, which M&S offers.

The text is written in informal language. There is a small number of terminology and there are no difficult incomprehensible expressions, besides perhaps several phrases could cause problems with understanding, e.g. phrasal verbs, which will be mentioned in the micro approach.

There are a great number of subheadings, which serve to facilitate the reader´s understanding. The text is logically structured. It is divided into smaller paragraphs. There is a small number of longer sentences in the text, but simple shorter sentences predominate and they will be analysed in the micro approach.

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2 MICRO APPROACH

a) Grammatical level

In the English language, there is a large number of verb tenses.

In the text mainly present simple and future simple tense occur. For example:

While we’ll provide the training tools and opportunities, it’s up to you to take advantage of them.

This sentence contains both of these tenses. Present simple tense (the verb is) is mainly used for stating truths, describing permanent situations or characterizing matters that happen on a regular basis. ^[31]

The usage of future simple tense (will provide) is to talk about predictions, which are based on guesswork, analysis or judgement. ^[32]

Other than future simple tense, there are other forms of future tense in the text, e.g. future continuous tense and future simple tense in passive voice.

In this example, there occurs the future continuous tense, which is used for temporary actions in progress at a particular point in the future:

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Whether you’re managing people in store, or a valued member of a Head Office team, you’ll be learning while you earn, shouldering real responsibilities and helping to tackle the ever-changing issues of the day.

In the second example, there is a passive form of future simple tense:

You will be given a specific area of responsibility or a project to manage yourself fairly early on - say yes, it's a great chance to shine.

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Phrasal verbs

‘One of the most common characteristics of the English verb is that it can combine with prepositions and adverb particles. Broadly speaking, we call these combinations phrasal verbs.’ ^[34] Some examples from the text:

take on – nabýt

What better way to spend your summer than making friends and taking on experience that can enhance your career before it’s even begun?

throw in – hodit (co/koho kam)

Experience is the best teacher, which is why M&S likes to throw you in at the deep end.

depend on – záviset, záležet (na čem/kom)

Depending on your graduate programme the attachment could be anything from one week to three months.

invest in – vložit, investovat (co do čeho)

We're investing heavily in smarter technology to achieve our vision of becoming the world's most successful multi-channel retailer.

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b) Lexical level

In the text, there occurs a great number of simple, compound and complex sentences.

Simple sentence is the smallest sentence-unit. It has a subject and a predicate. ^[35]

Examples of a simple sentence from the text:

Of course, it all starts with a comprehensive introduction to M&S.

You're never on your own with us.

In a compound sentence, all the clauses are equal and can stand on their own, there is no main clause with subordinate clauses depending on it. ^[36]

Examples from the text:

Studying a relevant degree is a big plus, but you will receive all the support you need to do a great job and further your career prospects.

We will support you throughout your career at M&S and, with role-specific training, help you reach your goals.

Complex sentence is a sentence that contains a main part and one or more other parts. ^[37]

As already mentioned, there is a large number of complex sentences in the text, especially relative clauses, which describe and determine nouns in more detail, to which they are referring. ^[38] There are stated some examples from the text:

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We want to develop and attract great talent, as well as being a diverse and inclusive workforce that allows our people to flourish.

This programme is for ambitious people who are finishing their first or second year.

This is a six to eight-week internship in which you’ll thrive and have a chance to see how different parts of the HR group work.

In the text, there occurs an expression workshop, which could be analysed from the morphological point of view:

workshop – noun, singular, common noun, it gender, concrete noun, compound noun, countable

structure of the word: work + shop

type of morphemes: both are free morphemes

This expression would be, as stated in the glossary to the second text, translated as seminář, workshop, pracovní seminář, vzdělávací dílna.

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